Under Thunder and Fluorescent Lights *

1. Sky's the Ground, The Bombs Are Plants, And We're the Sun, Love, The2. Address That Was to Skip Ahead the Gallop of It's Own Sperm and Eggs and Wait For Itself: Letter...3. Meet Me at the Space They Stare at Leaving Their Seat During the Show4. It Takes a Million Years to Become Diamonds So Let's Just Burn Like Coal Until the Sky's Black5. 1st. Our Lady of the Burning Thorns, The6. O, When My Lady Comes7. 2nd, The8. Third and Youngest, Unnamed, And9. Forever, Like Anti-Oxidants (Listen to the Sounds Our Cells Make)

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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 203

Credits

Producer

Engineer

Jim O'Rourke

Storm & Stress: Ian Williams (vocals, guitar); Erich Ehm (bass); Kevin Shea (drums, percussion, bells).Additional personnel: Micah Gaugh (vocals); Dan Bodwell (bass); Jim Black (drums).Recorded at Electrical Audio, Chicago, Illinois in June and July 1999.While on its self-titled debut Storm & Stress made a legitimate (if somewhat smirking) attempt to fuse avant-rock and jazz, on their sophomore effort, UNDER THUNDER & FLUORESCENT LIGHTS, any semblance of form goes out the window in favor of a series of extended minimalist improvisations, supplemented with tape samples and (sporadic) vocals. Whether this amounts to noise or cerebral, incidental music is debatable; whatever the case, kudos are in order for the three-piece's audacity.

Critic Reviews

Alternative Press (4/00, p.102) - 4 out of 5 - "...jokes without punchlines, beats without meters, notes without staffs, developments without points of closure....with this album [they've] become so good at provoking questions, that answers...well, they simply aren't the 'point'."Magnet (4-5/00, p.92) - "...Listening to [this LP] is a bit like trying to piece together the events of a violent space battle based upon the wreckage left in its wake....Music has been blown apart and shattered into countless pieces here, almost beyond recognition..."The Wire (3/00, p.58) - "...Oddly engaging, generating a bizarre internal logic from unlikely sources..."CMJ (1/24/00, pp.25-6) - "...noodly, experimental [and] warmly listenable...showing evidence of both heavy improv and ample tape manipulation....a testament to abstract minimalism that manages to give a few subtle nods to standard songwriting..."NME (Magazine) (2/14/00, p.43) - 7 out of 10 - "...luxuriates in the boundless possibilities of chaos theory....breaking right through...the boundaries of music. And subsequently, sometimes avoids making music at all....This is so far out [it's] panoramic."